2020 MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. Annual Report

Adaptation and Resilience W ith good plans and good people, a lot can be accomplished even under extremely challenging circumstances. Case in point: the technology enhancements at MidWest One Bank that were completed despite the Pandemic. “Fortunately, the majority of our technology

“Customers have been adopting digital banking over time for convenience purposes. But not surprisingly, the Pandemic really compelled more people to go into those channels. Looking at recent adoption data we can see that customer preferences for digital services continue to increase.”

— JACK COURTNEY, SECOND VICE PRESIDENT FOR E-COMMERCE

infrastructure was already in place to support a work- from-home workforce,” explains Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer John Henk. “This was the outcome of careful preparation and planning over the last several years. It facilitated the rapid pivot to working from home in a matter of days and allowed us to continue to serve our customers and staff with minimum disruption and little added expense.” Take, for example, the bank’s service center, made up of the team of people who help customers with a whole range of questions when they call into the bank. In times of uncertainty, this team is absolutely essential, so limiting downtime was key. “Within just a couple of days we were able to get everybody in our service center at home working remotely,” says Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Barb Finney. “And they did not miss a beat. They maintained our service levels. Our information services department had a lot to do with that because they were able to get them the technology they needed in short order. It was a great display of teamwork and coordination and leadership to get them home.” During the crucial early days of the public health emergency—including the rollout of the first set of stimulus checks—call volume to the service center increased by as much as 40 percent. But getting everyone set up to work from home was not the only major project on the docket. “We have planned for the last few years to upgrade our consumer digital banking options. We were fortunate that we had those enhancements already in the works,” says Allen Schneider, First Vice President and Information Risk Officer. “We had a rollout of a new online banking platform in the second half of 2020. I think it will provide some long-

term benefits in terms of what they can do without visiting a branch location.” Henk agrees. “Many of the digital tools that were previously considered nice-to-haves quickly became essential features of our service,” he says. “We anticipate this digital adoption will continue and we are actively investigating new options to enhance customer service and delivery channels. The bar has been raised and the options we offer must be personalized, convenient, and able to follow the customer regardless of the channel.” The new system took MidWest One from a standardized product used by many banks to a much more flexible platform. “Those standardized products don’t really support the customization we wanted to do,” explains Jack Courtney, Second Vice President for E-Commerce. “So this platform upgrade was a pretty big deal for us.” On the new platform, customers can freeze and unfreeze their own debit cards, they can easily move money between accounts, people, and places; new personal financial management tools are available, and a new security authorization system is in place. “Customers have been adopting digital banking over time for convenience purposes,” Courtney says. “But not surprisingly, the Pandemic really compelled more people to go into those channels. Looking at recent adoption data we can see that customer preferences for digital services continue to increase.”

Schneider sees the good in what would be easy to think of as a bad situation. “I think there’s been a silver lining throughout this process,” he says. “We have a better idea of the value of these technologies and how they can work in the right situations.” Still, he acknowledges that change can be hard for people to adapt to—perhaps especially in times of significant uncertainty. “I think that’s always a balancing act,” he says. “You try to minimize any irritating impact of change for the customer while adding positive new features and functions that they want. There is a lot of thought that goes into that process. Whenever we’re making a change that’s going to impact the customer, we try to make sure there is a good reason for it.” For her part, Finney sees plenty of areas in which the bank and its people can rightfully take pride. “Looking back on 2020, I am proud of how our company made the health and safety of our customers and our employees the top priority. That meant different things at different times, but we responded to make sure the safety protocols were implemented everywhere. And I was proud of how our culture came through during this time. We lived up to our operating principles of taking care of our customers and those who should be and working as one team. That included many of our employees who were quickly trained to help in different areas as needed. They really took a lot of pride in coming together to help each other and to help our customers.”

MidWest One customer Nancy Bird

22 MidWest One Financial Group, Inc. 2020 Annual Report

MidWest One Financial Group, Inc. 2020 Annual Report 23